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About this Title:

One of the plays in the 1916 Oxford University Press edition of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

Copyright information:

The text is in the public domain.

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This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.

[Aside toGloucester.] When he was made a shriver, ’twas for shift.Craig1916: 108

K. Edw.

Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had.

Glo.

The widow likes it not, for she looks very sad.

K. Edw.

You’d think it strange if I should marry her.

Clar.

To whom, my lord?

K. Edw.

Why, Clarence, to myself.

Glo.

That would be ten days’ wonder at the least.Craig1916: 113

Clar.

That’s a day longer than a wonder lasts.

Glo.

By so much is the wonder in extremes.

K. Edw.

Well, jest on, brothers: I can tell you bothCraig1916: 116

Her suit is granted for her husband’s lands.

Enter a Nobleman.

Nob.

My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken,

And brought as prisoner to your palace gate.

K. Edw.

See that he be convey’d unto the Tower:Craig1916: 120

And go we, brothers, to the man that took him,

To question of his apprehension.

Widow, go you along. Lords, use her honourably.

[Exeunt all butGloucester.

Glo.

Ay, Edward will use women honourably.Craig1916: 124

Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all,

That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring,

To cross me from the golden time I look for!

And yet, between my soul’s desire and me—Craig1916: 128

The lustful Edward’s title buried,—

Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,

And all the unlook’d for issue of their bodies,

To take their rooms, ere I can place myself:Craig1916: 132

A cold premeditation for my purpose!

Why then, I do but dream on sovereignty;

Like one that stands upon a promontory,

And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,

Wishing his foot were equal with his eye;Craig1916: 137

And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,

Saying, he’ll lade it dry to have his way:

So do I wish the crown, being so far off,Craig1916: 140

And so I chide the means that keep me from it,

And so I say I’ll cut the causes off,

Flattering me with impossibilities.

My eye’s too quick, my heart o’erweens too much,

Unless my hand and strength could equal them.Craig1916: 145

Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;

What other pleasure can the world afford?

I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap,Craig1916: 148

And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

O miserable thought! and more unlikely

Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.Craig1916: 152

Why, love forswore me in my mother’s womb:

And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,

She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,

To shrink mine arm up like a wither’d shrub;

To make an envious mountain on my back,Craig1916: 157

Where sits deformity to mock my body;

To shape my legs of an unequal size;

To disproportion me in every part,Craig1916: 160

Like to a chaos, or an unlick’d bear-whelp

That carries no impression like the dam.

And am I then a man to be belov’d?

O monstrous fault! to harbour such a thought.

Then, since this earth affords no joy to meCraig1916: 165

But to command, to check, to o’erbear such

As are of better person than myself,

I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown;

And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell,

Until my mis-shap’d trunk that bears this head

Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

And yet I know not how to get the crown,Craig1916: 172

For many lives stand between me and home:

And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rents the thorns and is rent with the thorns,

Seeking a way and straying from the way;Craig1916: 176

Not knowing how to find the open air,

But toiling desperately to find it out,

Torment myself to catch the English crown:

And from that torment I will free myself,Craig1916: 180

Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.

Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile,

And cry, ‘Content,’ to that which grieves my heart,

And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,Craig1916: 184

And frame my face to all occasions.

I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;

I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk;

I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,Craig1916: 188

Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,

And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.

I can add colours to the chameleon,

Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,Craig1916: 192

And set the murd’rous Machiavel to school.

Edition: current; Page: [669]

Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?

Tut! were it further off, I’ll pluck it down.

[Exit.

Scene III.—: France. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. EnterLewisthe French King, his sisterLady Bona,attended: his Admiral calledBourbon;the King takes his state. Then enterQueen Margaret, Prince Edward,and theEarl of Oxford. Lewissits, and riseth up again.

K. Lew.

Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret,

Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state

And birth, that thou shouldst stand while Lewis doth sit.

Q. Mar.

No, mighty King of France: now MargaretCraig1916: 4

Must strike her sail, and learn a while to serve

Where kings command. I was, I must confess,

Great Albion’s queen in former golden days;

But now mischance hath trod my title down,Craig1916: 8

And with dishonour laid me on the ground,

Where I must take like seat unto my fortune,

And to my humble seat conform myself.

K. Lew.

Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?Craig1916: 12

Q. Mar.

From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears

And stops my tongue, while heart is drown’d in cares.

K. Lew.

Whate’er it be, be thou still like thyself,

And sit thee by our side. [Seats her by him.] Yield not thy neckCraig1916: 16